


Stitch of Lightning

by Dead_Of_Winter



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M, Fantasy, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2014-04-05
Packaged: 2018-01-05 20:17:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dead_Of_Winter/pseuds/Dead_Of_Winter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Witch Marie AU) Marie is a witch of incredible power, who has spent most of her life wanting revenge on Shibusen for its persecution of her mother. But in order to take down the powerful academy, she must first eliminate its strongest fighters, starting with the infamous Dr. Stein. Marie tries to use his insanity against him, but she herself becomes infected with a very different sort of madness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Doors

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, here we go, first Soul Eater fic. This was an idea that popped into my head awhile ago, it's one of those "butterfly wing flap causes a hurricane" things- I changed one little aspect of the original storyline and now I'm gonna run with it. You guys can expect some guest appearances from Medusa and Spirit in later chapters by the way, I just need to kick off the plot a little bit first. Same goes for the romance- it won't get real prominent until maybe the third or fourth chapter, because Stein is a stubborn bastard who isn't the type to fall in love very quickly, I don't think. If there's any gore (there will probably be gore at some point, I'm a cruel person to fictional characters) or intense romance I will warn you ahead of time.

"You've got an excellent resume," the man said, smiling as he shuffled the paperwork. "Personally, I think that applying to be a street cleaner is aiming a little low. Why aren't you looking for a better job?" His curiosity seemed genuine, but disbelief narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. A gorgeous, intelligent woman like this wanting to become a street cleaner? She could probably get a job as a model, easy. Even the clubs paid a better wage, and they'd never turn down a babe like this. It seemed like such a waste…

Marie let an easy smile slide onto her face. "It's just my kind of thing, really." She practically radiated down-to-earth innocence from every cell in her body. "I've never been one to chase success, you know, because in my opinion it's better to stick with something important and worthwhile than spend your time pursuing fantasies. Hard work is what gets you places."

His expression cleared itself of its slight suspicion. "Ah, I see. Guess that's one way to look at it. Well, in any case, you certainly seem like a respectable woman, and given your amount of experience I'd be a fool to turn you down. You've got the job, miss." He stood up and shook her hand warmly.

"Oh, thank you very much! What streets will I be assigned?"

"Well, let's see here…" The city official went up to his wall and examined a large map of Death City, placing his finger on a large zone outlined in red marker. "This entire area is available right now, as we've been a bit short on manpower lately. Go ahead and take your pick." As the fair-haired Marie inspected the map with her searching brown eyes, James Falburn studied her intently. _She'd be good at this job,_ he thought. Kind, confident, easygoing, but with a firm and decisive manner- she'd do alright. It was no secret that nighttime jobs out on the streets were rather unsafe, what with the threat of being attacked by a witch or a corrupted human always a possibility. Not to mention the crooks and thugs who made lingering around dark alleys a dangerous habit. Shibusen couldn't stop them all, especially not regular criminals, who couldn't be easily detected like those with Kishin or witch souls.

Falburn blinked himself out of his thoughtful trance as Marie spoke. "I think I'll take these roads, sir. Will that be alright?" He squinted at the paper and raised his eyebrows at the place Marie was pointing to. "Really? You know that's by Dr. Stein's lab, right? Are you sure that's where you want to work?"

She smiled. "I'm sure. I doubt that those streets have been cleaned in a while, so I'll have plenty to do." She seemed completely unfazed by the mad doctor's proximity, a wonder given how rumors of his sadistic nature and immoral experimentation had spread. _This lady got's guts_ , he thought to himself, slightly impressed. Even he found that shadowy, stiched-up house a bit unnerving, and Jack considered himself to be a hard man to scare. "Very well. You'll start work Tuesday night."

Marie nodded. "Thank you." She walked to her chair and gathered up her stylish black coat. "Goodbye, Mr. Falburn. Have a nice day!" The grateful grin stayed on her face even as she walked out the door. It wasn't entirely pretense, her little performance. A good actress should always feel her act in her heart, right? It was much more involved than just putting on an elaborate mask. In any case, it went exactly as planned, Marie thought confidently. She let her hand fall to just above her sternum, checking the Soul Protect shield that hid her violet witch's soul under the blue wavelength of an average human. A cold wind tore through the darkened street and she stared up at the smiling moon, amused at the way it kept such a fearsome watch over Death City. _Tonight, I've taken the first step, haven't I?_ Marie's white heels clicked on the cobblestone as she began the lonely walk home. _Tonight, Shibusen begins to fall…_

Dr. Stein stared without seeing at the stitched ceiling above him, glasses slightly askew, lying spread-eagle on his laboratory floor. He was thinking. If he could compensate for the high center of gravity, which was mainly responsible for the imbalance, perhaps an environmental disruption would have a lesser impact or be delayed by a few fractions of a second? Stein sighed pensively as the wheel of his overturned chair squeaked slightly, still swinging from the force of the recent impact. He'd just been propelling himself into the room when the damned thing had grazed the bottom of the doorframe, sending him flying from the patchwork chair and onto the hard floor. His back ached a little from the encounter with the concrete and there wasn't anywhere he had to be at the moment, so… the doctor had decided that the floor was a good a place as any to ruminate on the force of gravity. Physics wasn't really his specialty, though. It wasn't something you could learn about with a scalpel and a steady hand. Stein had considerably more knowledge of the subject than most people, of course, but for him the dry equations paled in comparison to the complexity of living things. Years of experience behind him, and nothing was quite as beautiful as the arrangement of muscle over bone, the intricate tree-like patterns of veins and capillaries, the durability and the fragility of bare skin.

Stein frowned as he hauled himself up and righted the fallen chair, stitched-up shoes whispering as he walked out of the darkened computer room. Maybe he'd fix that chair someday, but right now there were more important things to do. He was expecting visitors. Those kids from Shibusen were due any minute now- in fact, they were a bit late. How annoying. He had been anticipating the chance to examine their souls…

The doorbell echoed hollowly and he blinked to clear his head. That would be them, wouldn't it? He hopped onto the chair again, zoomed out the door, and promptly toppled over at the feet of the blonde-haired woman who stood on his doorstep and looked down at him rather sternly. "That's an awful way to greet people," she told him reproachfully. "You might knock someone over that way, and then where would you be?"

Stein squinted up at her, a bit disappointed. "You're not who I was expecting. There's supposed to be more of you, and shorter." The woman offered her hand and he accepted it, a bit surprised at her strength when she pulled him to his feet. "Sorry to let you down, Dr. Stein. I'm Marie Mjolnir, just got hired as the street cleaner for your area. And I daresay I'm needed around here, aren't I?" She looked rather pointedly at the grimy road that stretched by the house.

"Hmph." Stein shoved his hands into his pockets, wondering why this strange woman didn't seem to be the slightest bit scared of him. Surely he'd caused enough rumors in the neighborhood to frighten off these kinds of people? "Why are you making house calls for something so trivial, and why so late in the evening?" he asked instead, taking a cigarette out of his jacket pocket and setting it alight between his teeth.

"Ah…" Marie blushed slightly. "I had a little bit of trouble finding my way here. It's not my fault these streets are so confusing!" She took a second to look grumpy before continuing on. "Anyway, I know it's kind of unusual for a street cleaner to know her customers personally, but I'm the exception. I think there's no harm in getting to know people, right?"

Stein shrugged, Marie's unusually perky attitude making him a bit suspicious. "I guess. Now excuse me, but I've got visitors coming and like you said, I need to make a good first impression."

"The short ones? They wouldn't happen to be students from Shibusen, would they?"

The doctor paused in his attempt to sidle back inside. "Now, how could you possibly know that?"

Marie shrugged, her unevenly parted hair bouncing with a disconcerting lack of gravity. Stein absently wondered if the sheer amount of obnoxious happiness in a person somehow made them lighter, or whether their good cheer simply generated its own breeze. "Just a lucky guess. I heard you graduated from the academy at the top of the class, so it's no surprise that students would drop by from some advice. That's why they're coming, isn't it?"

Stein shrugged, slipping further back inside his house as he tried to signal an end to the conversation. "Yeah. Something like that. Nice talking to you, Marie, I'm sure I'll get the chance to examine you more at some point." Not caring to see if she reacted to his odd choice of words, he shut the heavy metal door. But he had hardly turned around when he heard her knock, insistently but quietly enough to be polite.

He shoved open the door again and frowned at her from behind his glasses. "What."

Marie held out the laboratory chair that he'd left outside by mistake. "You forgot this." Stein reluctantly took it from her, and as he did his hand brushed hers ever so slightly. Marie's skin felt unusually warm to him, like she had electricity running through her veins, and he stared down without seeing as they both grasped the chair. Electricity for blood- an interesting concept. Hardly an easy experiment to pull off, given how fragile human tissue was, but it would be fantastic to try…

He heard the woman clear her throat and he abruptly realized that he was just standing in the doorway with his gaze locked onto his hand. Stein hastily straightened up and yanked the chair inside. "Well, goodbye, Doctor," Marie said to him. "Have a good evening."

"Sure, thanks."

"Got the chair for sure this time?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then. See you later!"

"Uh-huh."

_At least that's over,_ Stein thought to himself as he shut the door again. Hopefully that Marie woman would be out of sight before the kids got here. It wouldn't do to have them asking about him and discovering that he was slightly less of a villain than they had been told. Stein sat down on his stitched-up couch and rested his feet on the coffee table, letting his cigarette dangle limply as he laid his head back and thought to himself. Hmm… An electric woman, huh? What an exciting idea…. He closed his eyes as he let himself imagine, his mouth carving itself into a knife-thin smile.


	2. First Strike

Months later

"Get back here, you shitfaced bastard!" Black*Star screamed at the top of his lungs as he lunged at the Professor and missed for the hundredth time. As fast as the egotistical kid was, he couldn't match Stein's speed as the teacher dodged his every attack with casual and calculated motions. "You think you can avoid the wrath of God, huh? There's no one who could ever hope to beat me!" Bellowing furiously, he made a make-it-or-break-it dive for the Professor's head, his hand crackling with energy as he readied his intimidating willpower for a knockout blow. "I'm gonna defeat you in the name of Black*St-" Stein quickly stepped to the side and grabbed his student's outstretched arm in one fluid motion, flipping him head over heels and reducing him to a dazed pile of sprawling limbs.

"Aaahh…" Black*Star groaned as Tsubaki rushed over to help him up, gently offering some encouragement to her fallen meister. Stein regarded them from behind the light reflecting off of his glasses. "A good effort, Black*Star," he commented, not even out of breath, "but while your attacks are fast, you lack control and leave too many openings. Tsubaki!"

The black-haired weapon jumped a little. "Yes, sir?"

"Get your meister down to Nurse Medusa and ask for a cold compress. He'll be fine in a few minutes."

"Uh, sure. Come on, Black*Star, you can walk, right?"

"Of course I can," he mumbled blearily as he staggered forward a little. "I'm the greatest man on Earth, duh." The two of them made their way back into the school, finished with their lesson for the day.

Stein turned to face the rest of his small group, which now consisted of only Maka, Kid, and their weapons. He had taken them out for some dueling practice, and given how they were some of the best attack teams in the academy, he had opted for moving out of the classroom to minimize collateral damage. A good decision, as it turned out- there was a bit of a crater where one of Black*Star's attacks had met rather forcefully with the ground. "Given what you observed during the last match," he told his students, "I want you to try and guess what my possible weaknesses may be. Remember the moves you saw me use and identify any possible openings I may leave." He had, in fact, intentionally left his left flank slightly more vulnerable during the fight. "Maka, Soul, you're next. Start about 100 meters away, and-"

Before he could finish speaking, the earth rumbled nervously underneath his feet. They each yelped and stared around in shock, hastily replacing their feet against further tremors. "Professor Stein?" Liz asked nervously, edging close to her sister and glancing around apprehensively. "What… was that?"

But Stein did not answer. Instead, he pointed solemnly at the school that sat just over the hill, the setting sun glancing off his round glasses. It looked perfectly fine at first. But as the students watched, there was a bright golden flash that gleamed for an unnaturally long moment off the topmost spire, and the ground shook a second time.

"We're being attacked…" Stein said quietly to himself. His face hardened and he turned toward his still-surprised lesson group. "Get ready for battle, immediately. Liz, Patty, and Soul, you need to shift and stay in weapon form for as long as possible. We can't afford losing track of anyone." The three of them nodded and vanished in a burst of light. "Kid, you're the fastest, get word of this to Shinigami immediately. Based on the strength of the vibrations, we're facing a very strong opponent. This could get out of hand quickly.

"Yes sir." Kid summoned his skateboard and bolted away, leaving the trees to wave their branched behind him.

"Maka, you're coming with me. Be prepared to use Witch Hunter, and do not go off on your own unless I tell you to leave. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. But-" She hesitated a moment. "Who could be attacking Shibusen? Who would risk a thousand trained students coming after them?"

The Professor looked at her a long moment before turning away. "We need to get moving. That tower is where some of the initiate classes are held. Some of them might try something stupid." He did not answer her question.

**********************************************************

From the top of a hill almost a mile away, Marie watched her little storm spell strike unceasingly at the red-spiked tower. As far as her enchantments went, the flashy hailstorm of bolts she'd sent was actually relatively mediocre in terms of strength. It wasn't meant to do any permanent damage- only to cause a diversion, to allow her time to focus on her true target. She had waited for a perfect moment like this. Stein was outside the school, with only a single meister and weapon accompanying him, and in this kind of chaos who would notice if the professor was late?

To be honest, Marie would have preferred to avoid provoking Shibusen so early in her plan. It would have been much simpler to directly strike at Stein in his home, where there would be little chance of someone coming to his aid, but the Lightning Witch had arranged a different kind of assault on that particular front. Instead, Stein would be fighting a continuous battle, both at the school and in his own home, without being fully aware of how fast he was being compromised. This strategy was a bit sneaky for Marie's taste, though. It was very underhanded and manipulative. But if she wanted to take down Shibusen, she had to neutralize its most powerful Technician, and taking Stein down wasn't something that could be accomplished by simply trying to defeat him in battle. She had to wear him down first.

The witch smiled as she used her magically enhanced vision to watch Kid speed away from his teacher. Time to disguise herself. Marie brought two fists together in front of her, a flashing maelstrom of lightning erupting from her clenched hands. The swarm of bolts expanded to cover her entire body and her grin began to glow as the electricity crept over her face, reducing her to a silhouette marked with glowing eyes and teeth and yellow aura. She barely even looked human anymore- she was more like a demon than anything else.

"Stein, Stein," she purred, her voice crackling and snapping with energy, "I hope you're ready for our first battle."

********************************

"Don't slow down, Maka!" Stein shouted as they ran up the hill, feet pounding hard on the wet grass. "We've got to get to the school quickly, we-"

There was a sudden strike of lightning that touched down right in front of them, sending the Professor and Maka flying backwards. Both managed to land on their feet as the charged smoke began to clear in the front of them. What is this? Stein thought as he tried to squint through the haze. _Is that the soul of a-_ There was the sudden boom of a small shockwave that came from the crater before them, and the smoke cleared, leaving a terrifying figure in its wake- a woman who seemed to be composed of lightning and shadow, a living bolt that ignited small fires in the grass nearby.

"Professor!" Maka yelled from behind Stein, shock audible in her voice. "Is that a-"

"Witch." Stein finished her sentence grimly. "I take it you are responsible for these attacks?"

The woman smiled, an electric slash that cut across her obscured face. "How very observant of you, Stein. Like my little thunderstorm?"

"Can't say I do. It's far too flashy and crude."

She pouted. "And here I went to all this trouble to get you to myself. Well-" she glanced at Maka surreptitiously, "alone except for Pigtails here."

The younger meister narrowed her eyes. "Don't underestimate me, witch," she snapped irritably. "Soul Resonance!" Maka and Soul glowed with blue light for a brief instant before they struck, flying through the air to take down the witch from above. But they weren't quite fast enough. A bolt came to intercept Maka in midair and she was thrown back at an incredible speed, flying back thirty feet before slamming into a tree so hard she cracked the bark. Maka fell to the ground and stayed there, her head slumping forward.

"Defeated so quickly?" The witch smiled. "Well, it wasn't you who I came here to fight." Meanwhile, Soul had shifted back into his human form, and was trying desperately to wake his meister. "Come on, tiny-tits," he grumbled at her in a worried tone, "you're not gonna give up after one lousy bolt, right? Ah!" He touched her hand and jumped, the residual electricity in Maka's body shocking him.

"Soul!" Stein shouted "We can take care of her later."

Soul got up and looked down at his partner one more time. "Don't die on me, okay?" he told her. "I'll be right back." He ran to his teacher's side and transformed.

Stein assumed a ready stance. He didn't really like his odds- this witch was obviously very powerful, and he hadn't used Soul in real combat before. He had to fight with the goal of drawing out the battle, to give time for Shinigami to arrive. It shouldn't be that long, but-

Without further warning, the woman attacked, screaming as she threw a bolt at his face. "Destruction Blast!" Stein barely dodged it in time, and the lightning strike hit the ground where he had been only moments before. The real battle had begun. Immediately, he struck back with Soul, swinging and feinting and weaving back forth as he tried to find an opening. "Trying to stall, are we?" the witch said as another blast came a little too close to the Professor for comfort.

"Of course. If I can't handle you myself, there's a certain death god who can. Although I'm sure I can win regardless." He swept the scythe at her to punctuate his words.

"You're so confident, aren't you, Stein?" She wore a disarmingly innocent expression as she struck again.

He grinned back at her for the first time, but it was not anything close to a friendly smile. His eyes were too wide and staring, his lips were pulled back from his teeth in a mad snarl, and he was looking at her as if she was little more than a specimen he couldn't wait to tear apart. "You're just so fascinating. What drives your power, that's what I want to know. I can't wait to dissect you and find out myself!"

"Maybe I'll be the one to beat you, did you ever think of that?" She made a lighting storm fly at him from behind, but the Professor was paying more attention to his surroundings than it seemed. Even as he avoided the attack he was coming at her with his arm outstretched. "Soulforce!" Though contact with the witch sent painful vibrations up his arm, the attack was effective and she crumpled to the ground, flickering like a dying candle.

"Not bad," she coughed, clutching her stomach, "for a first try." She almost seemed to be talking to herself.

"First and only." Stein held Soul to the witch's neck, the blade curving close to her head.

"Oh? What makes you so sure?" Thunder rumbled above her head and she weakly looked up at her opponent. "Until next time, right?" Before Stein could react, a second bolt of lightning arched down and seemingly vaporized her, leaving nothing but another smoking crater behind.

Stein stared at the clouds impassively, his hand reaching up to twist the bolt that went through his head. There was a flash by his side as Soul changed back into a human. "She got away, huh?" he commented flatly, and was silent for a long moment before turning away and heading back to care for Maka.

"Yeah," Stein said to the empty air that still tasted of thunder, "she got away."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obligatory fight scene, might be a bit rushed, but hey this is a romance fic after all and I need to get to the fun part. Next chapter will be much more interesting.


	3. Chapter 3: Dead Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is why Marie decided to go incognito...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god I completely forgot about this story. Wow. Guess who's a grade-A asshole, especially since this doesn't have nearly as much romance in it as you probably wanted. But I'm giving you two chapters at once so please forgive me.

Dr. Stein was exhausted beyond belief. There had been yet another attack today, the fourth one this week. That same witch that first attacked him so many months ago... she just didn't seem to get tired. She came regularly, without fail, always showing up in a flash of lightning to launch yet another assault. Groaning heavily, Stein sank down onto the battered sofa. Ordinarily, Shinigami and the Deathscythes would have helped Stein capture the witch as soon as they could. But the Kishin had just risen again, and there was trouble across the globe, trouble that took a witch who seemed to have a grudge on Stein and put her considerably far down the to-do-list. Besides, for all they knew, he had the situation well in hand, didn't he? That woman was no match for the greatest technician in Shibusen.

Well, Shinigami probably knew otherwise, at least. And Spirit. He could be an idiot sometimes, but with all the years they'd known each other, the blue-eyed weapon knew when Stein was struggling. But neither interfered- maybe that meant they still believed he could handle things. Or maybe they had no choice but to trust him. Medusa, the Kishin, Arachne... no expense could be spared when fighting them. The doctor was on his own.

Stein grimaced and dug his fingers into his skull, like that would shut out the noise of the Kishin's madness. His insanity was increasing so fast. Every day he woke up from another nightmare, his nerves feeling raw, black thoughts crowding in the corners of his mind. Every hour made him feel even closer to losing it completely. But however much he was tempted, Stein could not give in. The last thing Shibusen needed to do was deal with his madness. That was his problem alone.

He abruptly realized his shoulders were shaking violently, and tried fruitlessly to control himself.

Somewhere very far away, although really it was just in the next room, the doorbell rang insistently. Stein didn't even bother looking up- there was no way he could get up in this state. Besides, if his guess was right, then his guest would come in anyway.

There was a muffled grumbling noise from outside followed by a loud bang, and the entrance swung open to reveal Marie with her foot held right where she'd kicked the doorknob. "Stein!" she yelled out as she walked inside. "It's no use pretending you're not here, I saw you come in. And there's SOMETHING I need to talk to you about, which involves a certain heap of dissected rat carcasses dumped by the side of the street..." She stopped abruptly as she rounded the corner and saw the doctor sitting with his shoulders slumped forward and trembling. "Oh... this again..." Knowing he couldn't see her, she let a satisfied expression cross her face for a moment before she went and sat down next to him.

"Marie... not now, please," Stein muttered listlessly. He didn't think he could handle a conversation with the energetic street-cleaning lady today. Or, well, she had become more like a neighbor in the recent months, defying his attempts to push her away by giving her the cold shoulder, as well as more than a few disturbing looks. But despite that, she'd just started coming into his house at one point. It was like a very gradual invasion of cheerful blonde good-naturedness.

The woman in question let out a faint sigh. "I suppose there was another assault again today, wasn't there? Fine. I won't pester you about the rats right this minute, but don't think you're off the hook, got it?" She got up from the couch and wandered into the kitchen, which didn't actually have any appliances in it besides some lab equipment that could conceivably be used to cook something simple. "I'm making you coffee." It was not a question.

Leaving Stein to mope on the couch, Marie got to work with the Bunsen burner, filling a (hopefully clean) beaker with water and setting them it over the open flame. By rifling through some dusty cabinets, she found some instant coffee mix packets in a jar. It wasn't even the good kind of instant coffee, she noted with disapproval. Stein really had no taste. Maybe she'd buy a better variety later and slip it amongst the cheap originals. Not that's he'd notice either way- it seemed like Stein hardly ever came in here, as the groceries she'd bought for him last week were in the same spot as she'd left them.

Soon enough, the water had come to a boil, and she dumped a packet's worth of mix in, casually angling herself so that Stein's view of what she was doing would be blocked, if he happened to look up. Which he probably wouldn't, given how he had not moved since she left the couch. Once she was sure she wasn't being watched, she quietly slipped a tiny vial from her sleeves and emptied a few drops of dark reddish-purple liquid into the steaming coffee. There was a brief static-like spark and she examined the mixture closely, making sure the potion wasn't visible. Satisfied, she lifted the beaker away with some tongs and brought it to Stein.

"There," she said with finality, setting the coffee on the table with a loud thump. "It's hot, so unless you want a burned tongue, you might want to wait before you drink it." The scientist did not respond. "Oh, for Shinigami's sake," she grumbled. "Pull yourself together for a minute. You're entirely capable of doing so, Stein, and if you keep sitting in silence like that I might start thinking you're just being rude." Marie leaned back on the couch, done with her gentle teasing. He would talk now, she was sure.

It seemed her prediction was right- Stein's hands closed into fists that held onto his silver hair, and with a slow movement of his head, he turned and stared at the street cleaning lady. "Marie?"

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "Yes?"

"Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Marie blinked, her soft brown eyes widening slightly. That wasn't quite what she was expecting to hear. "What kind of a question is that?"

"A good one." Stein's left hand slowly turned the bolt in his head. "You know what's happening to me, don't you? You know that I'm getting more…dangerous." He didn't quite want to say "twisted", which was what he was really thinking. "You know that it's not always just small animals that I end up dissecting. I can't help myself. Even you…" He closed his eyes tightly, a pained expression on his face. "Part of me wants to cut you up so badly. And still you stay."

"That's what's bugging you?" Marie relaxed, leaning back on the sofa. "Is it really so hard to believe that I don't get scared so easily? Sure, you need help, and I'm talking some serious rehab at least. But if no one's around to make you food every now and then, you'd probably forget to eat. I mean, you haven't even touched the fresh apples I got for you the other day. And speaking of which-" She nudged the beaker towards Stein. "This should be cool now."

He took a second to realize what was in front of him before he reached out, slowly, and lifted the glass to his lips. Stein drank its contents, potion and all, before his hand suddenly spasmed and he dropped the beaker. It shattered on the hard floor as his shoulders began to shake again.

"Oh, look what you did, Stein." Marie frowned at the splintered fragments. "Destroying things again, are we? Well, that is what you're good at." She bent forward and looked at his fevered eyes, which stared blankly ahead and focused on nothing. "You'll probably break your glasses with all that shaking you're doing." Marie lifted the lenses from his face and set them down on the table before getting a dustpan and sweeping up the broken glass, feeling confident in the knowledge that Stein would remember none of this. "Don't you know better than to let a witch in your house? And to let her make you coffee, no less. You really are slipping fast."

"Heh… heh heh…" A few stuttering laughs bubbled up from the depths of his throat.

Marie finished sweeping and went back in front of Stein, who did not respond as she tilted his face up to her with a single finger. "Are you gonna talk? Come on now, the first few times I gave you the potion, you said the most interesting things. In fact, you once tried to cut open my stomach as you ranted about the satisfying feeling of slicing through muscle." He still didn't speak, and Marie let her hand drop as she regarded him with disappointment. "Nothing." She brushed a few strands of silver hair away from his eyes. "You really are so boring. Until next time, right?"

Marie stood up and walked away, leaving the professor alone to deal with his three-eyed monsters.

********************************************************

Far away from the laboratory, Asuza sighed grimly as the mirror in front of her lost the image of Stein's living room. "It really is her," she said aloud, addressing her words to the death god standing behind her. "The witch and Marie are one and the same. How do we tell Stein?"

"I don't know," Shinigami answered her. "We took too long in our investigation, huh? It might be too late to reverse the damage the Lightning Witch has done… Stein is already so close to losing control, and something like telling him about this could set him off."

Asuza frowned in concentration as she adjusted her glasses. "We could use Spirit," she suggested. "It might be easier that way."

"Hmm… Well, okie-dokie! Send him up!"

"Please take this seriously, sir," Asuza muttered with disapproval, before going to fetch the red-haired Deathscythe.

It was time to confront Doctor Stein.


	4. Chapter 4: An Empty House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stein leaves Shibusen to chase after Marie.

"Mind if I sit down?" There was no response, so Spirit sat next to him anyway. "I'm going to need a cigarette, Stein."

His friend looked up at last, faint surprise registering in his glazed eyes. He'd hardly moved from there since Marie had stopped showing up at his house three days ago. "I thought you said these things were the fastest way to permanently join Shinigami in the Death Room," he muttered.

"Don't quote my own words back at me, idiot, it's rude." He took a cigarette from the pack offered to him and lit it with Stein's lighter before putting it between his lips. "Anyway," Spirit sighed, staring morosely down at his lap, "I didn't just come here to smoke. There's something I have to tell you about your street-cleaner."

"Marie?" The doctor was watching something out of the corner of his eye.

"Yeah, her. She's…aagh." The death scythe ran his fingers through his longish red hair, tugging at his scalp in frustration. "Damn it, I hate to be the one to tell you this." He paused a moment to take the cigarette from between his lips, blowing out a steady stream of smoke. "She's actually the Lightning Witch, okay? Using Soul Protect. And she's been slipping things into your food to accelerate your madness, and weakening you with physical assault to wear you down further. We should have suspected something like this earlier, but Asuza only started checking up on you last week, when we had started to get worried about how you were handling… uh, pressure. Sorry."

There was a long, awkward silence as Stein quietly absorbed this information and Spirit watched him anxiously. Wow, "pressure"? Spirit thought to himself. Yeah, way to go, messenger of God. You really delivered that little nugget of information well. A real professional. He was so busy berating himself that it took him a second to notice when Stein abruptly stood up. "Stein?"

The doctor did not seem to hear him, and instead began walking toward the door. "Oi, Stein, where're you going?!" He yanked himself upright and grabbed his friend by the arm, and Stein stopped and looked back at him, as if just noticing he was there.

"Let go," he said with a chilling lack of emotion. "I'm going to find Marie."

Oh, no, this exactly what I was supposed to stop, Spirit thought desperately. "You're not serious? You can't even think straight, Stein! This is what Marie wants- to fight you when you're weak so she has the opportunity to kill you."

"I said LET GO!" Stein roared suddenly, throwing Spirit back. His words echoed around the bleak gray room and left a painful silence behind. The doctor rarely raised his voice outside of battle, and for him to get so angry with his long-time partner… Spirit swallowed as he saw the look Stein wore under the shadows that cloaked his eyes.

"You need to think, Stein," he said, quietly this time. "Shibusen can't afford to lose you. I can't afford to lose you either- you're my first Technician, remember? I know I'm one to talk, but… please, don't be reckless."

Stein was silent for a long time, his fist clenching the material of his lab coat into tight folds as he appeared to weigh things over in his mind. He was itching to chase down Marie- his skin crawled with the desire to find her and tear her apart, a delicious sense of enraged madness that both excited him and scared him. If he did what he wanted to do, would the feeling go away, or would it get worse? He stood there, feeling Spirit's eyes on him, and made his decision. The hand clenched in his lab coat relaxed and he turned back to Spirit, his features heavy with regret. "Fine. I'll stay," Stein said reluctantly. The distance between the two of them seemed breathtakingly large as he looked at the ground from behind his glasses, unable to make eye contact.

But two days later, Stein did not arrive at Shibusen, and a few hours after that, a teacher was sent to confirm what everyone suspected to be true- Dr. Stein was gone.

************************************************

Miles outside of Death City, the man who'd so recently orchestrated his own disappearing act dragged his feet down a long, dusty road, ignoring the harsh wind that scraped against him. His eyes were closed as he focused on his soul-sensing ability. Marie wanted Stein to find her, of course… he suspected that the faint, throbbing signature of her wavelength was being amplified slightly to make things easier for him. The fact that the Lightning Witch was waiting for him didn't make this little expedition any less dangerous, though. Spirit would argue that it made things worse- it took away any element of surprise. Not that Spirit was here to argue tactics of any kind. It was funny… for a sadistic psychopath, Stein really did dislike lying to his best friend. His only friend, really, since Marie has turned out to have ulterior motives.

Stein kept walking, following his senses, trying to ignore the heavy heat that weighed down his steps. It was several hours before he came to a stop, directly in front of a crumbling old house in the middle of nowhere, which was covered in scorch marks. She's here, he thought almost feverishly. His mental state had been steadily deteriorating as he got closer to the source of the wavelength, and now that Stein was so near, the effect of all the potions he had been given seemed to coalesce. And the heat hadn't helped either. The metallic tang of a coming thunderstorm hung in the air and stimulated his nerves. "I know you're there, Marie!" he called with venom to the decrepit house. He looked like such a madman, shouting at nothing. "I came here like you wanted! Aren't you going to fight me?"

There was no response. "Tch," Stein hissed under his breath, and started for the dilapidated front door. If Marie wasn't coming out, then he was going in. Standing just inside the entrance, the doctor was disappointed at his surroundings- the interior was just as miserable-looking as the exterior. "Hey, Marie. You kept harping on about my house, but look at this place. Hehe. What kind of witch are you?" he muttered to himself.

Another step forward made the worn floor creak ominously, and Stein only just had the presence of mind to leap out of the way before the wood gave in. But strangely, there was no sound of the board fragments hitting a basement floor. Closer inspection revealed that the hole was abnormally dark- it sucked up light like a black mist. The only thing he knew for sure was that the source of the wavelength was coming from inside. Well… to hell with rational thinking. Before there was time to question his actions, Stein leaped past the edges of the broken floorboards, falling down, down, through empty space.

There was a strange feeling in his stomach, like gravity had flickered for a second, and the doctor tumbled onto a cold metal floor with much less force than he should have. He remained in in a crouching position for a moment, his knees sore from the fall and his glasses askew. She was here, not a few yards away- he realized this suddenly, and his pulse quickened. He could hear her soul.

"Doctor Stein," a familiar voice spoke kindly, accompanied by the sound of heeled footsteps. Stein stiffened. "It was nice of you to join me down the rabbit hole."

The doctor straightened up, not bothering to fix the lab coat that had partially slid off his left shoulder. From what he could see of his surroundings, he was in an immense dark cavern, with some sort of magical black screen covering the area he'd just fallen through.

Stein leveled his gaze at Marie. "I came, just like you wanted," he heard himself say. "They didn't want me to go, but this is where one of us dies, like you planned. But I think…" He twitched his fingers eagerly, feeling energy build up in them. "I think I'm going to destroy you. That would be satisfying."

"Well, you're awfully determined. Attack me, then. Go ahead!" Marie opened her arms wide, her black witch's cloak fluttering around her. She was facing him without using that strange electric screen she'd always worn. Stein supposed there was no use for it now. Masks and disguises were irrelevant, now that he knew the truth about her. "It's what you want to do, isn't it?"

For a moment, the doctor paused. The scrap of rationality left in his mind was telling him that there was something wrong about this. Surely she should want to make the first strike? He shook his head, his shoulders relaxing. No. Whatever it was, he didn't care. He couldn't think about things like that. The only thing he needed to focus on… was killing her. He wanted to hear her bones breaking, he wanted to watch the spirit fade out of her eyes, and more than anything, he wanted to dissect her until she stopped looking like she's ever been alive.

"MARIE!" He lunged at her with terrifying speed, his palm outstretched, but his opponent simply dodged him. She'd gotten better at anticipating his attacks.

"Medusa has got quite the little crush on you, did you know that?" Marie smiled as she watched him turn towards her new position. "She's smitten. Poor bitch would probably be very jealous if she knew that you went and sought me out all on your own. You didn't even bring your scythe buddy with you! It's just us, isn't it?" Her taunts seemed to have some effect, and Stein made a swift lunge for her neck.

"You just keep talking," he snarled viciously. "Maybe I'll start by cutting out your throat first!" His hand crackled with his powerful soul wavelength as he swung it at her face, his fingers arched into claws.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm a huge dick


End file.
